Posts Tagged: Business Owner

If you are in business then like it or not, you have to accept that your current and potential clients are searching for the products and services that you have to offer by using the major Search Engines of the world i.e. Yahoo, Google, Bing.

Your consumers increasingly spend more and more time using the search engines to locate, products, services and information that you want to sell to them ! And unless you as a business owner strategically work to make sure that those who are searching for your products, services and information find YOUR details [and not that provided by your competitors] you are missing out on opportunities to bring clients into your marketing funnel.

It is a sad fact that most business owners focus solely on paid search – Google Adwords being the most widely known method of advertising your website. This is despite the fact that according to recent data

88 Percent Of Online Search $$££s Are Spent On Paid Advertising

85 Percent OF Searchers Click On Organic Results

If only business owners could understand and grasp the fact that Search Engine Marketing presents a really unique Opportunity to connect with potential customers – they would divert some of their Paid Advertising Budget and dedicate it to attracting Search Engine Customers.

There can be no doubt that the world has changed in terms of how we communicate with each other, how we use mobile phones on a daily basis and how the visibility of a business on the Internet can translate into literally millions of dollars of revenue.

As the Internet is to be positioned as a key component of any company’s marketing strategy Apps for Businesses have become something that is almost a must have so that clients can have your business’ information at their fingertips. This is of course one reason why we (as a part of our consulting and Mobile Website development) have decided to develop Apps for Businesses.

Apps for local businesses are needed because customers almost have an expectation that your company will have Internet visibility, also with the ever increasing use of Mobile Marketing and of the App Store as promoted by Apple along with the Android Apps store, the marketplace have been accustomed to using Apps for all kinds of purposes. With that in mind, this plays straight into the strategy of the business owner i.e. give the marketplace what they are accustomed to, give them an App so that they can download be able to have constant access to your company’s news and information from their mobile device.

One of the most common questions that I get asked by those who are starting out in business; also by those who have been involved in business maybe for some time who maybe running a functioning business and making a decent living is : ‘just how to I actually go about developing a marketing strategy’ ??

At a recent networking event when speaking a business owner who by his own admission if well versed in the technology of his business (but not in the marketing) I spoke of the three pillars that I use when thinking about, explaining and developing a marketing or business strategy. They are :-

Product/Service categories

Channels To Market

Market Segmentation

… that is to say, we work on defining the category of the market that the Product or Service fits into, we then work on the marketing Channels. When it comes to channels we consider the channel that we use to deliver the product or service to the marketplace and secondly the channels that we use to push the message to the marker place through. And finally, we have to ensure that our preferred market segments are at the end of the channels that we use. That is the essence of the framework that I work through when refining and developing a marketing strategy.

Now, let’s assume we are you are selling massage therapy services [as one of my previous clients were]. For sure the channel for delivering the service would be in the therapist’s salon but they business owner will have many options in terms of channel marketing for delivering the branding message and services of the business to the market place at large. They can use direct mail, blogging, mobile, articles, newspapers, radio and more to deliver their message to the target market.

Next, we need to ensure that our product/service is positioned appropriately in terms of location, offering and pricing – a particular segment of the market may wish to pay say $15/hour for a massage but other high end clients may be perfectly happy to pay $100/hour if they see the value in what it is that you have to offer. The question is – which market segment is it that you will choose to target ? If this discussion we have covered the market segments and the category of the market that we wish to be positioned in.

So there you have it – an insight into my methodology for developing marketing strategies whether working with $multi billion clients in China [Swatch Group] or with a wedding reception services business such as http://www.lowcostchaircovers.co.uk/ that I consulted for last year.

In summary we want to be thinking of Channels, Market Segments and Product/Service categories.

To your marketing strategy development success,

Let me know if you wish to engage with myself and the team to assist you in your business.

It is taken as standard that all businesses will have a website presence these days. Just consider the questions that you ask when someone is informing you about their business whether it be the largest corporate or a Small & Medium Enterprise organisation. At some point in time their website address will come up in the conversation or maybe viewed on a business card.

Now consider the rise in use of mobile phone, or should we say – smart phones and the number of tablet devices that are being used to access the internet on a daily basis. It is with that in mind we can attach the significance of businesses making their websites easily accessible for mobile devices.

So the question is, are you a local business owner ? are you responsible for marketing your business and for getting the message out to the world at large ? if so then what is the current state of your website in terms of allowing clients to have easy access to the content that they are looking for within your site.

Due to the market demand and customer feedback we have started to provide mobile marketing websites for businesses – take a look at our sister websites over at http://www.MobileMarketingBusinessWebsites.com/ which will give you an idea of the what a mobile website is, why you need it for your business and how you can get in touch with us so you too can have the right mobile website for your business.

When we say ‘the right’ mobile website for your business, what do we mean ? well to be brief, most of the times when someone is searching on a mobile phone, they are not interested in reading an essay on your company, they most probably want to know your location and in many cases just want to call your business. This is where the ‘Tap To Call’ mobile website comes into play – this gives the searcher a simple mobile website of your business with only a few options, one of which is a BIG BUTTON which when they tap it; they call direct to your company.

As you continue to plan and refine your business strategy – be sure to include the mobile marketing specifics into all of the marketing execution that you do.

As we can all see, mobile marketing as well as mobile advertising is a terrific way for a variety of business types to get the word out. The beauty of this type of marketing is that it is instantaneous and targeted. Mobile marketing and advertising is in fact a coherent channel to market, and one that organisations need to take seriously as a major promotion channel.

The message of the business in question will undoubtedly be read immediately after it has been sent out by the business marketing departments, and as organisations use mobile marketing as a part of a clever marketing strategy, they are able to offer their customers enticing incentives for following through on the offers given by the company.

Considering how competitive most fields of business are, as a business owner you must do everything you can to stay in touch with your customers and to offer them services and/or products that they will purchase from you.

Instead of having to rely on email marketing which can become costly and often returns very few results-you can send your message wirelessly and you are all but guaranteed that your targeted customers will indeed read the text messages immediately and will likely act on them as well.

I’ll be writing more about this current, innovative and exciting marketing method in future posts. Any comments, let me know.

We are living in a world that is becoming [has become] increasingly connected, companies are looking to sell their products and services all over the world in order to generate the maximum amount of revenues possible. Diversity is now a Business Imperative where corporations need to be harnessing the full skills and competencies that are to be found in all employees.

The forward thinking companies found throughout the world make sure that the relevant structure and processes are in place throughout the organisation to ensure that employees that find themselves in the minority dimensions of diversity such as …

Ethnicity

Disability

Women

Sexual Orientation

Religious Beliefs

… and others; get the chance to use their skills for the benefit of the corporationat large. Whilst working for Hewlett Packard in my Marketing Management role, I was asked to get involved with the Diversity Program and ended up being involved with shaping the European as well as the U.S. Diversity Strategy for Hewlett Packard. This included making preparation for the very 1st Diversity Conference for Black and Minority Ethnics – my contribution was recognised globally and above you can see notice of the commendation and stock options that I received from the then MD of Hewlett Packard Europe.

As a Business Strategy consultant – I often get asked to comment and input on various aspects of the operation of the business which at times involves helping to shape the diversity component of the complete business strategy.

If you happen to be reading this as a Human Resources Representative, Manager or Business Owner in need of input in the specific area of Diversity Strategy – feel free to get in touch to see how we could possibly work together.

As I continue to be asked to appear in the media to comment on current news and events and, link those events to key Business Sales & Marketing Strategies the Small & Medium Enterprises should be taking on not just due to the current economic climate but just because all businesses should be based on solid Business Marketing Fundamentals.

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During this interview we deal with viewing the internet as a Channel to Market, in the papers was a news story detailing how Waitrose are moving into the non foodstuffs business which will be based on the internet. The large corporations are conditioning and preparing the market for the smaller business owner to be able to more effectively and readily take advantage of making use of the internet as a Channel to Market.

Take a listen and let me know what you think – get in touch if I can be of use to you in any shape or form.

Based on my relevant background combination of Education and Experience is Business Sales and Marketing …

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… Development and using tried and tested processes; I am fortunate enough to be able to work with business owners spanning different industries. Here is a testimonial from one Business Owner following one of my thought provoking business strategy sessions.

Blogging is one area of using the internet that is misunderstood. Blogs are seperate and distinct from a ‘standard website, blogs are in nature dynamic with frequently changing content and is a vehicle that is used strategically to drive business and branding.

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Small business owners have a great oppotunity to compete on a global stage by making use of their blog, the business owner must understand that they actually do not have to produce all of the content that appears on their blog [even though I write all (I have one guest writer) the content on mine !] if they are not that that way inclined :-

Use your blog to build your brand online

All top sports people, politicians, celebrities use blogs

Use your blog to promote your expertise

Use your blog to give relevant content to the world reinforcing your brand

Making use of the new technologies which includes blogging should be an integral part of any company’s ongoing marketing strategy; starting today – make it a part of yours. If you do not know what to do then, get help, ask, barter, negotiation : get in touch with me and we’ll see how we can help you on your way.

As The Sales and Marketing Process will continue to be at the heart and soul of all businesses – I gave a Business Marketing training session at Westminster Library last week for small business owners, amongst the feedback was this brief email from C Ho who is a fashion designer …

“Hi Stephen : Thank you for your seminar last night. I took away a lot of valuable information and felt you really explained marketing in an easy to understand format. Thank you : C Ho”

… it is my pleasure to be able to break down some of the technicalities and mysteries behind the marketing process in order to enable the business owner to gain some sort of control.